{"id":26942,"date":"2024-06-26T20:04:33","date_gmt":"2024-06-27T02:04:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/14-of-the-18-republican-candidates-endorsed-by-colorado-gop-lost-their-primary-races\/"},"modified":"2024-06-27T02:04:33","modified_gmt":"2024-06-27T02:04:33","slug":"14-of-the-18-republican-candidates-endorsed-by-colorado-gop-lost-their-primary-races","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/14-of-the-18-republican-candidates-endorsed-by-colorado-gop-lost-their-primary-races\/","title":{"rendered":"14 of the 18 Republican candidates endorsed by Colorado GOP lost their primary races"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Republican
Republican candidate Dave Williams speaks during a debate at Centennial Hall in Colorado Springs on May 16. (Jerilee Bennett\/The Gazette via AP)<\/span>dur-i-syn<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Fourteen of the 18 candidates endorsed by the Colorado GOP lost their primary elections Tuesday, most of them by double-digit margins.<\/p>\n

The results are adding to criticism of state party leadership, including chairman Dave Williams, who were already under fire for making the unorthodox decision to endorse in Republican primaries in the first place.<\/p>\n

Williams was among the candidates endorsed by the party who lost their primaries Tuesday. He got walloped by conservative activist and commentator Jeff Crank in the 5th Congressional District.<\/p>\n

State Rep. Richard Holtorf, an Akron Republican who lost Tuesday in the six-way GOP primary in the 4th District, said the losses are another sign that Williams needs to be removed as chair.<\/p>\n

\u201cHis election strategy, surrounded by this MAGA-right-Republican Trump endorsement theory, was a failed experiment,\u201d said Holtorf, who called for Williams\u2019 resignation after the state party endorsed U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert in the 4th District primary. \u201cHe was never the right person to lead the Republican Party, and in July there\u2019s going to be a movement to remove him and the other executive committee elected leaders, to set a course for a new direction for the Colorado Republican Party. That\u2019s coming and there\u2019s nothing Dave can do to stop it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Republican
Republican candidate Dave Williams speaks during a debate at Centennial Hall in Colorado Springs on May 16. (Jerilee Bennett\/The Gazette via AP)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert was the biggest winner among the four candidates endorsed by the Colorado GOP who won their primaries Tuesday. She had a 29-percentage point lead as of Wednesday morning in the six-way primary in the 4th District.<\/p>\n

The candidate endorsed by the GOP who was losing by the largest margin Wednesday morning was former state Rep. Janak Joshi in the 8th Congressional District. He was losing to state Rep. Gabe Evans by 55 percentage points.<\/p>\n

Joshi moved to an apartment in Thornton earlier this year from Colorado Springs to run in the 8th District.<\/p>\n

The decision to let the Colorado GOP endorse in partisan primaries was made under Williams\u2019 leadership by members of the state central committee at a gathering earlier this year.<\/p>\n

All of the candidates endorsed by the Colorado GOP got on the primary ballot via the caucus and assembly nomination process. Williams has criticized candidates who gathered petition signatures to make the ballot.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think he should realize there\u2019s a new wave of leadership, and that this is a referendum on him,\u201d El Paso County Treasurer Chuck Broerman, a Republican, said at a primary election watch party Tuesday night in Colorado Springs where Crank called for GOP unity. \u201cThis is not the pathway to success \u2026 it\u2019s by embracing each other.\u201d<\/p>\n

A special Colorado GOP central committee meeting is scheduled for Aug. 31. The agenda includes \u201cconsideration of any special meeting petition requests\/questions properly submitted,\u201d which may mean an effort to oust Williams. At least 60% of the committee would have to vote to remove Williams.<\/p>\n

The Colorado GOP sent out an email Wednesday morning congratulating the party\u2019s primary winners.<\/p>\n

\u201cPrimary elections can be tough but now is the time to shift our focus toward defeating Joe Biden and all the radical Democrats who are harming Colorado and the nation,\u201d the unsigned email said. \u201cNow is the time to come together to help get President Trump and our nominees across the finish line.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Colorado Sun is a reader-supported, nonpartisan news organization dedicated to covering Colorado issues. To learn more, go to coloradosun.com<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Party\u2019s unorthodox decision to endorse in primaries divided Republicans<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":26943,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[2786,266,28,308,774,1722,1304],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-26942","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-candidates","tag-election","tag-headlines","tag-local-elections","tag-political-candidates","tag-regional-elections","tag-republican-party"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26942","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26942"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26942\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26943"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26942"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26942"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26942"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=26942"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}